The richest man in the world began the exercise of choosing a successor for his empire

Image: FB

Bernard Arnault, the world's richest man, is looking for a successor to his empire. Before retirement, he wants to hand over his assets of more than 17 lakh crore rupees to one of his children and for this the exercise has also started. The French businessman is the chairman and CEO of world famous fashion brand Louis Vuitton (LVMH). They are holding auditions to choose one of their four sons and one daughter.

The search for a successor for a $500 billion company

Bernard Arnault is due to retire at the age of 80, although he still has 6 years to go. The search for a successor for the company with a valuation of more than $500 billion has reportedly intensified. Arnault's new successor could be one of his 5 children.

Bernard Arnault holds a 90-minute lunch meeting every month

Arnault adopted a very special method for this audition. He holds monthly 90-minute lunch meetings with the five children in the private dining room of the company's Paris headquarters. Meanwhile, their opinion is taken on many matters related to business. Arnault is trying to figure out which of his five children is capable of taking over his business during this 90-minute period.

Four sons and one daughter to Bernard Arnault

LVMH has 75 brands from 60 subsidiaries, which are famous all over the world. Bernard Arnault, the owner of this luxury fashion brand, has four sons and one daughter. The eldest daughter is Delphine Arnault, while the eldest son is Antoine Arnault. Apart from this, his other three children are Frederic Arnault, Alexandre Arnault and Jean Arnault.

Delphine Arnault

Delphine Arnault was born in the year 1975. She is Bernard's only daughter. He began his career at McKinsey, where he spent two years as a consultant before moving to designer John Galliano's firm. Delphine worked at Christian Dior Couture as its Deputy Managing Director from 2001 to 2013 before spending a decade as Executive Vice President of LVMH's largest brand, Louis Vuitton.

Antoine Arnault

Antoine Arnault was born in the year 1977 and is the eldest of Bernard's four sons. Antoine started working in LVMH's ad department in 2005 and was appointed communications director at Louis Vuitton two years later. Antoine was named CEO of Christian Dior SE, the holding company that controls LVMH. Antoine is also CEO of luxury footwear company Berluti and non-executive chairperson of cashmere label Loro Piana. Antoine became a board member at LVMH in 2006 and has been the company's Head of Image and Environment since 2018. Delphine and Antoine are the children of Bernard Arnault's first wife, Anne Devavrin.

Alexander Arnault

Alexander, born in 1992, is the first son of Bernard's second wife, Helene Mercier, and is an executive vice president at Tiffany & Tiffany. Alexander has been instrumental in growing his father's retail business.

Frederic Arnault

After internships at Facebook and McKinsey and running a mobile payments startup, Frédéric was assigned key responsibilities at LVMH. Frederick was born in the year 1995 and is the CEO of TAG Heuer. He was not feeling comfortable when he was entrusted with this huge responsibility. So TAG CEO Stephen Bianchi was tasked with training him.

Jean Arnault

Jean Arnault was born in the year 1998. He joined his father's business only after graduation. Jean holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London. As a student he had internships at Morgan Stanley and McLaren Racing. At the age of 23, Jean was made Marketing and Development Director of Louis Vuitton's watch division.

The world's No. 1 richest man, Bernard Arnault, has a total net worth of $209 billion. On the list of billionaires, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the only one who rivals Arnault in terms of wealth. Musk's net worth is $162 billion and is second in the list of top-10 billionaires.